Has anyone done this recently?

[Dave Henderson]

I needed a battery for my '64 Mercury Comet Caliente Hardtop in the early '80's.  I opted for a J. C. Penney one with a lifetime guarantee.  In "88 it conked out and In the meantime Penny's had given up the auto servicing business, but fortunately Firestone had bought it from them and assumed warranty liabilities.  Firestone cheerfully gave me a brand new replacement with a continuing lifetime guarantee.  In '94 it was replaced, another lifetime guaranteed freebie.  That one endured fairly well too, so it wasn't  back to Firestone until April of '01 for another, same terms.  In just a year and a half that one failed, so you know the drill.  the Interstate replacement they gave me in 02 was fantastic.  It held a good charge until 2018 after which a cell went bad.  The car was being stored so I didn't think much about the dead battery, until that is I decided to get the old Comet up and running again.  I pondered, would Firestone still come through?  They did!  a $159.99 Interstate, and it's guaranteed for life.  That totals up to 5 free replacements and it ain't over yet.  Kudos to Firestone!  And if you're wondering, yes, I do still have the Caliente.

[JRHaelig]

No.

(Edit....sorry...I thought you meant the other this)

 

[46 woodie]

Wow, usually that so called, "lifetime replacement" has a lot of strings attached, good for you!

[1950panhead]

That totals up to 5 free replacements and it ain't over yet.  Kudos to Firestone!  And if you're wondering, yes, I do still have the Caliente.

Very happy when Toyota offered "lifetime" muffler for my 92 Toyota, paid for one muffler, received three (so far).

 

[wayne sheldon]

You mean that there is actually still one honorable corporation left in America?! The bank I have preferred to use for nearly 40 years opened a checking account (I actually had two of them!) with an "absolutely positively FREE checking" for life as long as you live! I lost one of my two accounts a few years ago when someone stole the checking information and ran up nearly a thousand dollars buying drugs online in ONE week. I was very disappointed in the bank when they told me that once that information (incredibly stupid as all the information was on EVERY check I wrote anywhere?) was in the hands of certain thieves, the only way to avoid further illegal use of the numbers was to close the account and open a new one. NO, they could not block use on the old numbers, no, they could not assign new numbers to the old account etc etc etc. AND they no longer offered the "FREE" checking for life account. However, they did offer "free over 55 checking", and since I had gone over 55, I went with that. Of course, that new account has a few restrictions and strings attached that my old account did not. And I still had my other personal and "nuisance" account (the stolen numbers were for my wife's and my joint account).

Then, a couple years ago for my remaining "free for life" account, all of a sudden, and without me receiving any notifications (the bank says they mailed some, but we never did get them), suddenly they wanted ten dollars a month as a maintenance/management fee. 

So much for "so long as I may live"? Maybe I died and nobody told me?

 

I could rant for an hour about that whole banking and checking incident! But frankly, I do not know a significant corporation that I have to deal with that isn't flat out lying and trying to deceive me every time I do business with them. The state of our nation today is abysmal!

[padgett]

In the past I had both a JC Penney lifetime battery (in the 78 Sunbird I had for a few decades) as mentioned in later years it was a Firestone and a K-Mart lifetime battery I had in my 72 wagon also for a few decades. Back then in Florida a premium battery lasted about 18 months (before AGMs).

 

Also had some Penncraft lifetime tools that in later years were replaced on failure by Sears.

[John_S_in_Penna]

Dave, that's an excellent record, and I hope you 

keep it up for many more years to come.

 

Have you heard about CARS that had a lifetime warranty?

I've done brief articles on two of them.  Here is one, a

November 1909 ad for the Woods Electric, "Absolutely

Unconditionally Guaranteed, Anywhere, Everywhere, Always":

 

Edited June 27, 2020 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[zepher]

I had a lifetime alignment on my '02 Nissan with a major chain tire center.

Over the years I had the alignment done when needed, especially after doing front end work like struts or tie rod ends.

Well, a few years back after I had replaced a lower control arm, non serviceable bushings, and I took it in for an alignment the same shop would not honor the lifetime alignment contract.

The tech had seen the new, shiny parts once they got it on the rack and told the manager, he said their lifetime alignment is only valid if they perform the repair work.

I went to my glove box and pulled out the original contract, zero mention of such stipulation.

Manager refused to honor the original contract but said I could repurchase the contract for a slightly reduced price, so I told them to get my car off the lift.

Got home and called the Bureau of Automotive Repair and filed a claim.

Scanned and sent them all the original paperwork.

A few weeks later the BAR called and said the company no longer honored those contracts but they were going to refund my original purchase price as a settlement.

I had already had the car aligned somewhere else so the refund just back filled what I had paid another shop.

 

So now that shop has a mark on their record with the BAR and the BBB and they lost a customer for life.

And it is possibly the last alignment they would have had to do on the car because it has 235k miles on it but still runs and drives perfect. But those miles, who knows if something major with happen?

[Harold]

In the '70's we had a '63 Lincoln Continental and got lifetime mufflers installed at a major national exhaust chain store ( think 'gold').  We had several muffler failures, and each time got a huge runaround to get the work done.  The hassle was designed to make people give up, but it didn't work in our case.  Haven't used that chain since.

[TAKerry]

I would have thought the lifetime would have ended with the first replacement. Anyway, that worked out to be a pretty good deal. I bought 2 lifetime subscriptions to Sirius radio when they first started, one still going strong. The other stopped working about a year ago, when I called and inquired they told me the radio does not exist!!  I left an unhappy customer.

[John_S_in_Penna]

I read that one of Pennsylvania's former banks,

Dauphin Deposit Bank, offered certificates of deposit

with a 15% interest rate.  That was back in the late

1970's or beginning of the 1980's, when inflation and

interest rates were very high and pessimists thought

that the economy would never return to normal.

 

The thing is, the CD's could be renewed perpetually with that

rate!  I heard in the mid-1990's that they still had some of those

high-paying CD's outstanding, and they were using various

"tricks" to shake those customers loose.

 

It's always good when businesses live up to their commitments.

 

 

Edited June 27, 2020 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[padgett]

I have a "Maxlife" (well 2099 and 999,999 miles)  Chrysler service contract on my Grand Cherokee. Probably be in my estate sale. Best tow car I've had.

[JACK M]

Lifetime of anything is when its life ends.

[Buffalowed Bill]

Harold,

 

You mean that the lifetime Midas muffler that my Dad put on his 1963 Studebaker, in 1972 may not be honored by the company? It may a technicality, but I have owned to car since his passing and our names are the same. But at 76 yrs old there is a good chance that the muffler will outlive me. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4bR4LKzdco

 

[padgett]

Agree, there are lotsa different service contracts but this specific one is by Chrysler and well regarded within the Chrysler community (and my GC has the Mercedes chassis,  the engine (Pentastar) is very similar to the Merc M276 less the DI.). 60k miles and only in for oil changes and recalls. One battery replacement.

[ply33]

19 hours ago, wayne sheldon said:

I could rant for an hour about that whole banking and checking incident! But frankly, I do not know a significant corporation that I have to deal with that isn't flat out lying and trying to deceive me every time I do business with them. The state of our nation today is abysmal!

 

We used to have accounts with a national brand bank. But then they tried to up sell us on everything and give us all sorts of hassles. So we moved our accounts to a credit union. Years later that bank was found to be fraudulently creating accounts and/or adding on features that cost money to existing accounts without permission from the account owners. My only surprise on this is that all those other customers hadn't left the bank like we did.

 

18 hours ago, padgett said:

Also had some Penncraft lifetime tools that in later years were replaced on failure by Sears.

 

Sears honored lifetime warranty on JC Penny's Penncraft tools? That surprises me.

 

1 hour ago, Buffalowed Bill said:

Harold,

 

You mean that the lifetime Midas muffler that my Dad put on his 1963 Studebaker, in 1972 may not be honored by the company? It may a technicality, but I have owned to car since his passing and our names are the same. But at 76 yrs old there is a good chance that the muffler will outlive me. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4bR4LKzdco

 

 

Back in the 1970s, after watching some of those Midas ads featuring a Model A Ford I got an exhaust system for my '33 Plymouth. They refused to give me a lifetime warranty (this is after doing the work) because the muffler they installed "wasn't the correct one for my car". Last time I ever gave business to Midas.

 

[zipdang]

On 6/27/2020 at 12:48 AM, John_S_in_Penna said:

Dave, that's an excellent record, and I hope you 

keep it up for many more years to come.

 

Have you heard about CARS that had a lifetime warranty?

I've done brief articles on two of them.  Here is one, a

November 1909 ad for the Woods Electric, "Absolutely

Unconditionally Guaranteed, Anywhere, Everywhere, Always":

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 28, 2020 by zipdang (see edit history)

[zipdang]

Sorry about the double posting of images in the previous entry. It wouldn't let me edit out the extras.

 

Extras deleted - thanks padgett!

Edited June 28, 2020 by zipdang (see edit history)

[CHuDWah]

3 hours ago, ply33 said:

...Back in the 1970s, after watching some of those Midas ads featuring a Model A Ford I got an exhaust system for my '33 Plymouth. They refused to give me a lifetime warranty (this is after doing the work) because the muffler they installed "wasn't the correct one for my car". Last time I ever gave business to Midas.

 

 

I remember that ad - as the old guy was leaving after getting yet another lifetime muffler replacement on his Ford, he waved to the mechanics, smirked and said, "See ya again, boys!"  🤣

We were on vacation, 1000 miles from home when our front brakes went out.  Not being familiar with any local shops, we took the car to Midas - national chain, lifetime warranty, yada, yada, yada.  The work was OK but the price was high and I think they replaced some stuff that really didn't need replacing.

[Buffalowed Bill]

The "old guy" in the 70's Midas commercials was old time character actor John Hoyte.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFOWdIPQImk

 

[CHuDWah]

1 hour ago, Buffalowed Bill said:

The "old guy" in the 70's Midas commercials was old time character actor John Hoyte.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFOWdIPQImk

 

 

 

Yup.  Midas had a bunch of TV and movie character actors and some better-known (at least in the 70s - 80s) ones in its commercials.

[padgett]

" It wouldn't let me edit out the extras." There is a little trash can in the bottom right of the picture in the image section.

[Marty Roth]

Many, many years ago I bought a "Lifetime Guarantee" automotive battery from the  W. T. Grant store in Linden, NJ, probably around 1959 or 1960. Ultimately, after Grant's closed, the warranty was picked up by some automotive repair chain - maybe Firestone? It was replaced every 2 or 3 years. Eventually I sold the cars in which it was used, bought my new '69 Pontiac Custom"S", and moved to New Orleans with no more need for the replacement of that warranty.

[Paul Dobbin]

I bought a 65 Mustang Deluxe Pony Convertible 1in 1970.  The A/C unit was bad and I replaced it with a Montgomery Wards unit with a lifetime warranty.   Never paid for freon

or anything, then Wards went out of business and J. C. Penney's picked up the warranty, so I bought a lifetime Penney's battery and a lifetime Midas muffler.  When iIrestored the car about 1990, I got a new chrome bezel for the A/C Free. and batteries from Firestone, never needed a muffler though.   Sold the car in 1994 by accident, but miss it still.  Never found a lifetime paint job.